Senators' Hobbies

choi

(1) Jennifer Steinhauer, Tracking the Secret Lives of Senators, from Pilates to Piano. New York Times, July 9, 2017, at page A2 (in the column "Inside the Times; The story behind the story").
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/ ... es-of-senators.html

Note:
(a)
(i) The German surname Steinhauer means "a quarryman or stonemason, from Middle High German stein stone + an agent derivative of [verb] houwen to cut."
(ii) The surname Eisenhower (eg, president Dwight D Eisenhower) is "Americanized spelling of German Eisenhauer."  The latter "is found in west central (Palatine) Germany only; elsewhere the standard term is Schmidt."  Dictionary of American Family Names

(b) Pilates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilates
(c) "Once his hive arrived this summer, he [Senator Pat Toomey (R-Penn) ] invited me for a look-see."

look-see (n) : "a general survey"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/look-see

(d) "ruck marching around the National Mall with Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, for example, at dawn * * * even though I wore no rucksack"
(i) Joni Ernst (birth name: Joni Kay Culver; husband's name: Gail Ernst)
(ii) backpack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpack)
(also called rucksack, among other names; The word rucksack is a German loanword mainly used in the UK and in Western military forces. In German, [noun masculine] Rücken means "back" and [noun masculine] Sack means "bag [or sack]")

The English noun sack came from Old English sacc. Old English was the language of Anglo-Saxons (who hailed from Germany). Also recall the first letter of German noun is capitalized.
(iii) Gail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail

(e) "When a Times-assigned photographer was suddenly unable to make a planned Pilates lesson with Senator Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat of North Dakota, I suggested that Senator Angus King, an Independent of Maine whose hobby is photography, come shoot us in action. He was pleased to comply, until I was sternly warned that it was against company policy to hire a United States senator as a freelance photographer for The Times. My bad!"

my bad (phrase): "North American  informal"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/my_bad

(f) "But mostly it was all gravy, readers. I ate the muffins baked by Ms Collins warm from the oven and sprinkled with baking sugar [powdered form; for dusting]. I listened to Senator Debbie Stabenow, a pianist, belt out Carole King. I learned a few things about Pilates — let us all tip our mats to [phrase: tip one's hat to] Ms Heitkamp"
(i) gravy (n): "something additional or unexpected that is pleasing or valuable"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravy
(ii) Carole King
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_King
(1942- ; American)

(g) "My only disappointment was a senator who declined to practice yoga with me, perhaps because I suggested we do the interview while inverted in tripod headstands."

Use images.google.com with the search terms ("tripod headstand" yoga), and you will see the tripod is composed of the head and two palms.

choi

(2) Jennifer Steinhauer, Bees, Cameras and Pilates: Tracking Senate Hobbies. New York Times, July 9, 2017, at page A11.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/ ... senate-hobbies.html

Note: Chris Coons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Coons
(1963- ; received graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School [from the latter he earned Concentrated Master of Arts in Religion (MAR); he earned both JD and MAR in 1992 from Yale]; His ancestry includes English and Irish)